The number of states in the USA that allows sales of raw milk for human consumption has been trending upwards and reached thirty-eight in 2016. These legislative changes could encourage raw milk ...consumption. The current study examined the determinants of weekly raw milk use by at-home meal preparers in the USA.
Using the 2014-2016 American Time Use Survey - Eating and Health Module, multivariate logit regressions and average marginal associations were estimated to examine how at-home meal preparer characteristics, time use and shopping choices, underlying health and the presence of at-risk individuals in households and raw milk legalisation status are associated with the probability an at-home meal preparer consumed or served raw milk during an average week.
USA.
At-home meal preparers aged 18 years and above.
Estimated average marginal associations suggested younger at-home meal preparers, male at-home meal preparers, larger sized households and households located in non-metropolitan areas were more likely to use raw milk during an average week. Married households and households with a person aged 62 years or above were less likely to use raw milk. Variables indicating health characteristics of at-home meal preparers or the presence of an at-risk individual in the household were not statistically significant.
There are many government-sponsored information resources about the risks of raw milk currently available. Additional education may be needed to prevent illnesses from raw milk.
Using publicly available import refusal data, this paper examines the extent to which an economic recession affects import refusals for pathogen violations—shipments that appear to violate the laws ...enforced by the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on adulterated products. Statistically significant differences in the average share of pathogen violations suggest that changes in import refusals by pathogen type were associated with the 2007 to 2009 U.S. recession. Compared to averages before 2007, the average share of pathogen violations increased by 13.4 percentage points for Salmonella, decreased by 8.4 percentage points for Listeria and decreased by 2.7 percentage points for Histamine. While this could have been caused by changes in inspection or by changes in the quality of the food imported the results nonetheless suggest that aligning additional inspection resources immediately following macroeconomic slowdowns towards shipments more susceptible to Salmonella may help minimize the risk of foodborne illness from imported products.
Homework is increasingly being auto-administered online with systems that offer numerous assignment settings. This paper discusses the results of a quasi-experiment designed to evaluate student ...behavior under single and multiple attempt homework settings using an online homework management system. We explore whether or not multiple attempts lead to more effort and improved performance, and evaluate alternative, less desirable, behaviors that are potentially incentivized. We find that multiple attempts lead to "guessing" behavior and in turn grade inflation, hence improving scores without improving learning outcomes.
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Consumers expect meat and poultry to be safe. Yet, they cannot evaluate the safety of the products they buy because food safety cannot be readily observed. Even with advances in screening ...technologies, meat and poultry companies may, at times, be unaware that they are mistakenly producing products with an inappropriate level of food safety. Federal food safety regulations exist to provide independent levels of oversight designed to protect public health.Some meat and poultry buyers have a greater need for food safety, especially organizations that serve food to hospital patients, the elderly, and other groups at a higher risk from foodborne illnesses. These commercial buyers can stipulate additional tests, audits, or food safety controls through specialized contracts with meat and poultry companies. Earlier ERS research had shown that most chicken plants are under contracts with commercial buyers and that the use of contracts with standards that are more stringent than the standards required by FSIS was correlated with lower Salmonella levels.In recent years, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has recognized that, except for information about product recalls, few market signals for food safety exist to help guide meat and poultry purchasing decisions by large retailers and other commercial buyers. As a partial remedy, FSIS established and publicly shared some food safety performance information for poultry plants on their Web site. A recent ERS study found that public disclosure of this food safety performance information was correlated with notable reductions in Salmonella levels. These findings led ERS researchers to conclude that this additional information enabled retailers, restaurants, nursing homes, and other large commercial buyers to seek out better performing plants, which encouraged all plants to improve food safety performance.
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Foodborne illness can be costly and often is avoidable by following simple low-cost practices, including hand-washing, avoiding cross-contamination of kitchen surfaces, cooking foods to verified ...temperatures that kill pathogens, refrigerating and freezing foods at recommended temperatures, and avoiding high-risk foods. Government health and safety officials, as well as the broader food safety community, have offered unequivocal advice: Do not drink raw (unpasteurized) milk, and always cook meat using a thermometer to verify that it has reached a safe temperature.
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In February of 2014, over 50,000 tons of coal ash was spilled from a retired power plant into the Dan River of North Carolina. Coal ash exposure can have either positive or negative effects on an ...ecosystem, largely depending on the concentration and species of the heavy metals it contains. The resulting alterations within an ecosystem can include both abiotic factors, such as the pH of contaminated soils or waterways, and biotic factors, including the viability and diversity of exposed organisms. Herein, we report that one year following the coal ash spill into the Dan River significant differences were observed in several abiotic factors of contaminated bank and channel soils, including pH and content of chromium, sulfur, and calcium. Furthermore, the density, diversity, and fitness of the microbes in soils exposed to coal ash were also altered when compared to reference samples. The implications of these variations are discussed.
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In February of 2014, over 50,000 tons of coal ash was spilled from a retired power plant into the Dan River of North Carolina. Coal ash exposure can have either positive or negative effects on an ...ecosystem, largely depending on the concentration and species of the heavy metals it contains. The resulting alterations within an ecosystem can include both abiotic factors, such as the pH of contaminated soils or waterways, and biotic factors, including the viability and diversity of exposed organisms. Herein, we report that one year following the coal ash spill into the Dan River significant differences were observed in several abiotic factors of contaminated bank and channel soils, including pH and content of chromium, sulfur, and calcium. Furthermore, the density, diversity, and fitness of the microbes in soils exposed to coal ash were also altered when compared to reference samples. The implications of these variations are discussed.
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The first essay of this dissertation examines the substitution effects between Major League Baseball home games and how these substitution effects impact the attendance returns of a doubleheader--a ...day in which two games are played for the price of one. Specifically, a model of daily baseball attendance based on utility maximizing behavior is developed and then tested using Major League Baseball data from Retrosheet.org for 1938 to 2009. Findings suggest that home games are substitutes for each other and the substitution effects are strongest when home games are played closer in time. Additionally, the substitution effects between single games and nearby doubleheaders are particularly strong. In fact, these substitution effects are strong enough to overwhelm the positive day-of attendance returns of a doubleheader to where the total effect of doubleheaders on season attendance is negative. Lastly, two implications of this latter finding are discussed: 1. Was the widespread use of doubleheaders, particularly from 1938 to 1985, in the team owners' self-interest; and, 2. After properly accounting for substitution effects, how effective are traditional modern-day promotions in increasing season attendance? The second essay estimates the environmental impact of sporting events by analyzing a collection of small typically geographically isolated cities which host at least one NCAA football team that competes in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in 2010. Fixed-effects regressions controlling for differences across cities and across months suggest that cities do experience an increase in pollution levels on and around game days relative to non-game days. These marginal increases were largest in November even after controlling for weather and various trends. However, predicted levels were below EPA daily thresholds. Additionally, hypothetical levels required to increase mortality rates from 0% to 1% were three to eight times larger than observed maximum game day pollution levels. Thus, the estimated marginal increases in daily pollution levels experienced by cities as a result of hosting a college football game are not hazardous and are not expected to increase mortality risks. The third and final essay estimates the demand for beer in the U.S. from 2001 until 2006 using a multinomial logit discrete-choice model of product differentiation. Using grocery store scanner data from Information Resources Incorporated (IRI), demand estimates are used to evaluate the extent to which two new beer brands–Michelob Ultra and Bud Select–attracted new drinkers. This unexplored aspect to new brands has various public health implications regarding the over-consumption of alcohol. For a single market, counterfactual results based on a simulation involving 50,000 hypothetical consumers drawn from a type 1 extreme value distribution suggest sales were overwhelmingly generated by new drinkers as they accounted for 68% of sales of Bud Select and 74% of sales of Michelob Ultra. Additionally, new drinkers of Bud Select preferred larger package sizes–specifically 12-packs over 6-packs–whereas the reverse held for Michelob Ultra. Lastly, a number of suggestions for future work are provided.
Identifying adulterants in imported foods and refusing contaminated shipments help minimize the risk of foodborne illness from foreign products and are essential to keep U.S. consumers safe. This ...report uses import refusal data from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2002 to 2019 to explore import refusals based on contamination with pathogens and toxins. The report examines trends in total, annually, by industry, and by country. The analysis helps identify which pathogen/toxin is the most common in refused imports, which industries are the most frequently refused in total and by pathogen/toxin type, which countries are the most frequently refused in total and by pathogen/toxin type, and what changes occurred over time. From 2002 to 2019, Salmonella violations accounted for nearly 79.8 percent of all pathogen/toxin violations, followed by Listeria at 11 percent. By food industry group, most pathogen/toxin violations occurred in fishery and seafood products (44.1 percent), followed by spices, flavors, and salts (26.3 percent). Shipments from India, Mexico, and Vietnam accounted for 22.9 percent, 14.9 percent, and 8.6 percent of import refusals due to pathogen/toxin violations, respectively. This report has a limited understanding of which factors affect the refusals because the dataset does not have the volume of shipments inspected, and the FDA inspected only a small percent of the shipment, not randomly, based on the previous history.
Identifying contaminants in imported foods and refusing contaminated shipments help minimize the risk of foodborne illness from foreign products and are essential to keep U.S. consumers safe. This ...report uses import refusal data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2002 to 2019 to explore import refusals based on contamination with pathogens and toxins. The report examines trends in total, annually, by industry, and by country.
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